Photo caption: The high desert survey area near Abydos, Middle Egypt." title="The high desert survey area near Abydos, Middle Egypt.

The ASPS project uses systematic archaeological survey, detailed stone artifact analysis, and study of landscape formation processes of the high desert west of Abydos (Middle Egypt), focusing mainly on the Middle Paleolithic. During this time (~100,000 BP), the first anatomically modern humans left Africa to colonize the rest of the Old World, and the Nile Corridor quite probably represents the route for this dispersal. Our goal is to provide new and important data on the ways in which this landscape was used and how early modern human behaviors were or were not similar to later modern human strategies.